Well, good morning and welcome
to our continuing study in the Gospel of Luke. Today we're going
to be completing our portion of our study on Luke chapter
4, so we'll be looking at the last few verses there. We've been in this book since
the beginning of April. It's been a couple weeks since
we got together on this study. Our last lesson was the Holy
One of God and how our holiness is due to Christ's holiness. Be ye holy because I am holy. And how that was something that
the Lord accomplished in our behalf. So I thought maybe we'd
just spend a minute reviewing the main points of what we covered
so far in chapter 4. It's 44 verses long. It's a fairly
long chapter. It was just packed with so many
wonderful things about our Lord. So, message one dealt with the
temptations that Christ faced, what we could not do for ourselves,
and we went through those temptations and noted that they were in nature
the same ones that Adam faced and failed in, and Christ was
victorious over them. And then our second message was
what we titled it, The Rubber Meets the Road. And we looked
at Christ going to the synagogues and reading the scriptures. And
they said, they were amazed at the gracious words that he spoke. But when he applied them, that's
where trouble erupted. When he applied them and said,
this day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears. He is the Christ. Then the trouble began. Message
three was sovereign mercy, where he said, but I tell you of a
truth, truth and grace. And he said, there were many
widows in the days of Elias, but to none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a widow there.
And that was, she was a Gentile woman in a Gentile country. the
prophet of the Lord was sent unto her. And we kind of explored
the truth that God is always in the business of gathering
his sheep, and sometimes he uses the method of sending someone
with the gospel to one of his sheep, and sometimes he uses
the method of bringing the sheep to the gospel. And in this block
of scripture we see both exhibited. Many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. And we looked at this fact that
the Lord had caused those Syrians to go down into Israel on a pillaging
raid, and they had captured a young maid and made a slave out of
her. She was a slave in Naaman's household, and he was suffering
from this terrible blight of leprosy. And she told him about
the Lord. She told him that there was hope. So we find that the Lord provided
through His sovereign grace, even though I'm sure those folks
down in Israel thought the raid was terrible. The parents probably
were greatly grieved over their young daughter being taken and
abducted, and yet the Lord used it for the furtherance of the
gospel. Then we looked at In Sovereign Mercy Part 2, in
both cases, we observed that there was no expectation of grace
naturally occurring in either one of those cases. The woman
says, I don't have anything to do with your God. Go away. Let me eat my last little crumb
and die. And Naaman says, well, I'll go,
but I'm going to do it my way. So, no expectation of grace naturally
occurring or deserved, and neither case existed in a country that
even claimed God as their God. In fact, the opposite was true
there, both pagan countries. And again, we see in one case,
God supplying a man to bring the gospel to his one of his
elect and the widow of Zarephath. And in the other case, we see
God directing the steps of a man to the place where the gospel
was. And Naaman, the leper from Syria,
came up and was cleansed. So, message five, they said they
were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with power and
authority. We looked at astonishing doctrines
and we kind of took a look at that and said, In the synagogue, where it was
a works-based, keep-the-law-oriented religion, if that was fine, if
that was accomplishing what the Lord wanted, if that was accomplishing
the salvation of His people, He would have said, fine, you're
doing good, keep it up. But they were astonished at his
doctrine because it was so contrary to what they'd been told by the
elders and the priests and everyone. And that by grace are you saved,
through faith in that, not of yourselves, as a gift of God,
not of works. No works. So, they would have
been very astonished if the works they were engaged in, tithing,
and keeping the law, and doing the sacrifices, and stuff that
they did on the surface, not even all the time, or not even
according to God's Word. They would have been astonished
if that was satisfactory. And message six, Lord of the
Sabbath. It says, He taught them on Sabbath
days, And we examined the truth that Jesus is our Sabbath, our
rest. And we wrap that up with a verse
from Hebrews 4.10 says, for the he that has entered into his
rest, that's the rest of Christ because his works were finished
from before the foundation of the world. He that enters into
his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did
from his. And we looked at Genesis and
ended up in Hebrews on that block of scripture, the Lord of the
Sabbath. Then message six through 10, we looked at these astonishing
doctrines that would have been declared and His word was with power and his
word was power. We spent the next five lessons
on astonishing doctrines, the doctrines of grace commonly known
as Tulip, Total Depravity, Unlimited Atonement, Limited Atonement,
Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saints, and so on. And
we spent one lesson on each one of those, Unconditional Election. And then message 11, our last
one that we engage in, the Holy One of God. That was what He
was called by those devils that He cast out. And we examined
His holiness and what holiness truly means and how it's misrepresented
in His character. and how terrible a mistake that
is, and the fact that the holiness of the Church is based in His
holiness. And that's imputed to us 100%. And so today, we're going to
look at the closing verses of chapter 4, beginning in verse
36. And we'll read through there,
chapter 4, verse 36 of Luke, down through the end of the chapter.
And they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying,
what a word is this? for with power and authority
he commandeth the unclean spirits and they come out and the fame
of him went out into every place in the country round about and
he rose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house
and Simon's wife's a mother was taken with a great fever, and
they besought him for her. And he stood over her and rebuked
the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and
ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them
unto him, and he laid hands on every one of them and healed
them. And devils also came out of many, crying out and saying,
Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered
them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ. And when
it was day, he departed and went into a desert place. And the
people sought him and came unto him and stated him that he should
not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must
preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore
am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues
of Galilee. So some main points we want to
look at today. His word was power. And they
were astonished at that. His word says, with power, but
actually his word was power. What a word. with authority and power He commanded. So, we look at this and commonly,
we kind of refer to His word being powerful as efficacious grace. In Genesis
chapter 1, we have a great example of His Word being power. His Word was power. If you were
to turn over to Genesis chapter 1 quickly in the creation narrative. in the first couple of three
verses. And there's several of these examples throughout. We're
only going to look at this first one and you can examine the other
ones and apply the same points to it. But in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God
said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw
the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from
the darkness. And then in verse 6, let there be affirmament in
the midst of the waters. And that occurred. And so we
look at this word, let there be, and in In our scripture, in our concordance,
we look that up and it's kind of just one word there, and it's
defined as be or exist. So we might look at that as the
Lord said, be light, and light became. His word was power. It was efficacious. It accomplished
the thing which he had determined to accomplish. And then we look
at scripture being fulfilled in healing by our high priest. Hebrews 4. Again, we always like
to look into Hebrews because it gives us such clear explanations
of what's going on in the Old Testament. Hebrews 4, verse 15,
which follows up immediately after the part about having entered
into His rest and ceasing from our own works. And verse 15 says,
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the fillings of our infirmities, But it was in all points tempted,
like as we were, yet without sin. And this is taken from Isaiah
chapter 53, verse 4. If you turn over there to Isaiah
53, 4 and 5, In Isaiah 53, verse 4, it says,
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. So he has borne our griefs. Now this word grief, when you
look that up, When we think of grief, we think
of more of an emotional turmoil, and it's usually applied in that
manner in today's language. But in the Concordance, you look
up that word griefs and it talks about sickness or malady. And
so when he healed all these people, he bore their sicknesses, their
maladies. And so we don't have a high priest
which can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities because
he bore them. he healed these people. And so
we have a metaphor here of him, a picture of him fulfilling the
Scriptures. And there's no greater malady
than sin. And so this is also mentioned
in the This same quote in Matthew chapter 8, the same thing that's
written here in Luke is covered in Matthew 8, 16. When even was
come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils,
and he cast out the spirits with his word. and his is in italics,
so he cast out the spirits with word and healed all that were
sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the
prophet saying himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. So he's fulfilling scripture
when we see him healing people and we read about them in the
scriptures. He did it according to the scriptures. Sickness here
is used metaphorically representing sin. You know people have illnesses
and maladies. All infirmities are really rooted
in the fallen sin. It's all because of the curse
that that was incurred at the time of Adam. So, all these things
developed from that, and Jesus healed those who came to Him.
Those who were made aware of their condition and were caused
to see in Him hope, where before there was none. You wouldn't
go to the doctor if you had an illness and expect a cure if
you were positive that they didn't have any cure, that there was
no remedy for your malady. You would only go if you were
caused to have hope in that And many times we try and self-cure,
and that's a picture of works in trying to accomplish self-righteousness. So, there's no greater sickness
or malady than sin. And it says Jesus healed Every
one that came to Him, those who came to Him who were called by
the Father. The Word of His Gospel called
many to Him for healing. And those who did come to Him,
He in no wise cast out. He laid hands on every one of
them and healed them. And a significant point here
is that Jesus healed completely and immediately. There was no
recovery time. Many times we have an illness and we kind of
get over the major part of the illness and that disease has
departed, but our bodies are racked with fatigue and with
entropy. We lose our muscle power and
we have no stamina. But we find Peter's wife's mother,
immediately she rose and ministered unto him. She was completely
healed, not just partially. She was able immediately after
to enter into active service. And so, as it is written in Matthew's
account of this, he himself took our infirmities and bear our
sickness. You know, we think of him all
the time. bearing our sins. He bore our sins and nailed them
to the tree. But we don't often think of this,
taking everything that we're exposed to and bearing that himself
and taking care of that. And even though physical ailments,
Even though they were healed in this case, those people were
still subject to physical death because of the fall. But they
were brought to spiritual life, which is eternal. There were several things that
we want to look at today, and all they that had any sick with
diverse diseases brought them unto Him. And so there's some
important things for us to consider there. They were brought to the
Lord. They didn't come of themselves like Mephibosheth. He couldn't
come to the Lord, so He had him carried to Him. bring these people
that had diverse diseases. He had them brought to Him. No man can come unto Me except
the Father which sent Me draw him. They had no ability to come. Sin had removed their ability.
What a picture of that. They were so decimated that they
couldn't come. One thing that we want to look
at is that many brought loved ones to the Lord. Jairus' daughter,
we have an account of that in the Gospels where, Lord, save
my daughter. She's going to die, or she is
dying. And the centurion and his servant
whom he loved. So many times we see folks bringing
their loved ones before the Lord and beseeching Him on their behalf. And hopefully the Lord would
have mercy on them and cause them to believe. And like name
and servant, who brought Him news of hope in the Lord, who
could heal Him. Sometimes it's family members
that can say to a person, There's hope in the Lord. Flee to Him. You know, there must have been
reason for their hope in Christ and responding to the, come unto
Me all you who are laboring or heavy laden. That hope, that
trust, that total reliance on Christ for salvation comes from
the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, they just wouldn't.
They'd just say, there's no hope for me. But we find many of them
saying, why not me? Why can't I have relief from
this? And we find that they don't really
understand their condition until they're made aware of it by the
Holy Spirit in the new birth. And then they turn to Christ
for healing, for salvation. And I was watching the news this
week and reading about it. And on CNN, this famous news
anchor made a statement regarding the strife that's consumed the
nation, and really it applies to everything that we've been
studying, because it really points to the natural man saying, no
God, there is no God. He said, if you believe in one
another, Chris Como said, if you believe in one another and
if you do the right thing for yourself and for your community,
things will get better in this country. You don't need help
from above. It is within us. Well, he's granting
ability to a lot of people who have no ability to do the right
thing. Doing the right thing is the
farthest thing from their mind. They don't believe in one another.
They believe in taking advantage of one another. They believe
in overpowering one another. And
so, it isn't within us to make that better. It's only from above
that that can be addressed. And Jesus addressed this very
issue in Luke's Gospel in chapter 5. He said, they that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So those that
have no awareness of their condition, those that have no idea that
they have the worst malady in the world, the killer malady, They don't have any idea that
they have it. They don't need a physician.
So another important and vital component of this example in
Luke where he's gone and out of the synagogue and they brought
all these people to him that the Lord himself is going where
he must needs go to give spiritual healing to his sheep. And to
some, he was just the show, the miracle man, but to the sheep,
he was so much more. They found that he was not there
by accident or whim, but had known them and loved them from
all eternity and came to save them from their sins. And I believe
that he made that known to them when he healed them, when he
took care of them. To them, it was more than just
Oh, I'm well now. He took care of this thing. The
statements that people make after the Lord has taken care of them. I know that He is Christ, the
Son of God. I know that He is the Lord God
Almighty. I know that He came to save His people from
His sin. They found that He really wasn't
there just by accident or coincidence or whim, but had known them and
loved them from all eternity and came to save them from their
sins. They came because the Father
drew them to the Son, the Holy Spirit causing them to believe
that He was the Son of God, come down from heaven to save them,
cause them to think. As Matthew Henry mentioned in
his commentary, why not me? That doesn't come from the natural
man. Why not me? And He laid hands
on all of them and healed them. None that came to Him did He
cast out. And even though in their previous
nature, they were enmity against Him. No doubt filled with wrath
that they were even afflicted. Probably some of them were, why
do I have this leprosy? Why do I have this illness? Why
me? Why me? Why me? I'm angry because I've
got this affliction. And yet, they're angry because
of that. He looked at them with eyes of
love and saw them as they truly are in his eyes, the sheep of
the Lord, the elect, the church that had been given to him from
before the foundation of the world. So, some like that woman who
had the issue of blood, she used up every method of self-help
to no avail. On our own, Jesus is like resort
number last. We don't go there first. There's
none that seek Him, the Bible says. There's none that understandeth. But still He loved them and gave
His life for them, and He laid hands on every one of them and
healed them. And now, a final note regarding
something which was noted twice in this chapter, and I wanted
to kind of say this for the last bit But it is it's stated twice
here in verse 32 and verse 36 and we'll read those real quickly
again Luke 4 32 they were astonished at his doctrine for his word
was with power and in verse 36 they were all amazed and spake
among themselves saying What a word this is What a word this,
that is, is a supplied word by the translator, but I think it
gives definite, concrete meaning there. What word this for with
authority and power, he commandeth the unclean spirit and they come
out. The word power, it is power. And nowadays we've given it that
descriptive term of efficacious, which means producing a desired
effect and is actually is effective. And in the Genesis, we mentioned
earlier, let there be light. And there was light according
to Strong's Concordance, the Hebrew term, let there be, is
actually just one word. Hayah, which is rendered exist
or be and It's really a much more forceful and commanding
term than let there be Just it's really just exist light
be light His word is so powerful in in John chapter 1. It says
in the beginning was the word of And the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and all things were made by Him, the Word. And without
Him was not anything made that was made. And in Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it. So the word, by his word,
he spoke things into existence. It's not like he had to stir
up a pot or a kettle and do a bunch of things. He just said, be light. And light became. Be firmament. And firmament became. And many
such things we find that in the scripture. The word then is with
power and applied by the Holy Spirit and his people in the
gospel. In 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 4 and 5, it says, Knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our gospel came not
unto you in word only, just physical word, like many can read the
words that we just read on this page and not see anything in
them. But if you're looking for Christ, if you're looking for Our Savior, it's plain. If you're looking for Him, you'll
see Him. Knowing, brother and beloved, your election of God,
His choosing of you. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power. and in the Holy Ghost
and in much assurance. So his word is effective. His word is powerful in the thing
to which he directs it. As it says in Isaiah chapter
55 verse 11, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my
mouth. It shall not return unto me void
or useless. But it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it. So God's word is powerful and
quick. It's called quick and powerful
and sharper than a two-edged sword. Our pastor on Wednesday
night brought a wonderful lesson on Zechariah on the word of the
Lord came to Zechariah and his word his truth. And the truth that he brought
to Zechariah was things were awful there. And they'd gotten
away from God. They'd rejected all of the things
that were the picture of the gospel and things were awful
there. And so that truth was produced
by his word. And then it goes on to tell us
in Zechariah that the the power of the Lord in producing the
remedy for that through His Son, through the Christ. And in the
case here described in Luke chapter 4 and in other places, the word
that went forth from the mouth of the Lord immediately accomplished
as in creation that which the Lord pleased and will prosper
where He, the Lord, sends it. Many came to Him And he brought
them unto him with diseases, and he laid his hands on every
one of them and healed them. And the devils also came out of many,
crying out, saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And he
rebuked them, suffering them not to speak. for they knew that
he was Christ. They knew it in a kind of a physical
sense, but they didn't have a spiritual understanding of what that really
meant here. They just knew that he was opposed
to them. And they were amazed and spoke
among themselves saying, what word this? For with the power
and authority he commandeth them. And they come out. He said, come
out. And they came out. They didn't
get a vote. They weren't able to resist the
power, the almighty power. And it was immediate. And so we'll conclude with a
verse from Ephesians chapter one, 19 and 20. And it tells
us, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power? How powerful
is it? Well, it's the exceeding greatness
of his power to us word. who believe according to the
working of His mighty power. That's His mighty power that
causes us to believe in Him, to trust in Him, to have total
reliance in Him for salvation. It says, which He wrought in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own
right hand in the heavenly places. So that mighty power that on
the third day said, arise, And He did. That same almighty
power is used in every one of the Lord's elect, every one of
His sheep, every one of the church, and causes them to believe the
gospel. Causes them to have an intersection
with the gospel and to believe it. And so we'll stop there. There's more on his power, the
power of the Lord in chapter five. And as we go through chapter
five, we'll, we'll take a look at that. And here he kind of adopts some of his fishermen
folks here and make some fishers of men. So, in many exhibits of his power
in supplying things for their needs and healings and so on. So we'll look more on power in
chapter 5. In the meantime, thanks for your
attention in the study of Luke chapter 4. And as always, be
free.